Wednesday 14 December 2011 14.17 EST
First published on Wednesday 14 December 2011 14.17 EST

After months of planning and a low-key beta period, an intriguing new online marketplace for independent games has opened to the public today. IndieCity is designed to provide small studios with an easy way to get their titles in front of a global audience, while gamers can use the built in recommendation engine to discover new titles, without having to browse through masses of menus.

"The idea mainly came about from our own frustrations with the current marketplace, and how it was overly focused on the mainstream," says project lead, Chris Swan. "Although some of the more notable indie devs were well covered, we found that there was a huge number of overlooked indie games that were scattered and hard to find across the web. We wanted to provide an open marketplace where developers were more in control of their games, and a site where gamers could discover the full breadth of what indie gaming truly has to offer."

Star Sky: a game that describes itself as a midnight stroll with unlockable encounters.

Interestingly, the site has a specific idea of what it means by the term 'indie' – "Games should be cool, arty, experimental and fun, not manufactured and recycled," goes the blurb that comes up when you search for IndieCity on Google. And the 60 or so games currently available for download reflect that ethos. Trauma, for example, is a strange photographic odyssey into the mind of a traumatised woman, created by designer Krystian Majewski, while Star Sky by Marten Jonsson is effectively a simulation of a midnight stroll, and MontyGames' Mobiloid is a robot construction puzzler.

Discovery is the key element. IndieCity users download a client on to their PC that manages access to the catalogue, and this will also automatically retrieve demos and trailers of games that it thinks the user will enjoy, based on previous purchases. It's a concept borrowed from retail sites like Amazon, and the idea is to make 'shopping; for indie titles more accessible. developers are able to set their own prices, with the current selection ranging from 70p up to £12.

Mobiloid: build your own robot from spare parts then shove it through a series of puzzles.

Swan also reckons IndieCity is a good bet for developers who may have found the selection and approval process of leading games download site Steam somewhat esoteric. "Our community-approval process means that we are not the gate-keepers for what goes on IndieCity: essentially so long as your game is stable, virus-free and considered 'indie' by our community reviewers then you'll be approved. We provide some of the best revenue share available to developers, with those integrating with our SDK getting 85% of the revenue."

Based in Leamington and originated by veteran independent developer, Blitz Games Studios, the site is also looking into the possibility of arranging Groupon-style revenue share models with developers, as well as GameJams. "We work closely with our developer community as we create and add more features to the site," says Swan. "The forthcoming Underground area, for example, allows them to try out 'Pay to Finish' business models and build a fan-base while their games are still being developed."

Clearly then, IndieCity also has one eye on spotting and nurturing the next Minecraft...